


I'm Different

by StellarOwl



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, It's a mess but that's just how the Different Turret talks, Still bad at tagging, side character narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27728053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StellarOwl/pseuds/StellarOwl
Summary: The events of Portal 2, as seen by the Different (Oracle) Turret.
Relationships: Chell & GLaDOS, Chell & Oracle Turret, Chell & Wheatley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	I'm Different

It wasn’t really a turret. Turrets stood in one place and said “hello” and shot at their friend, the hero. It stood in one place and did not shoot at anyone. But it looked like a turret, and it appeared that by Caroline’s standards, that meant that it should behave like one. That was why it was there.

_There_ , meaning wedged awkwardly in a clear tube until another of the metal Prometheus’s rejects dislodged it.

Yes, she was Prometheus, even if that wasn’t her name. She gave everything in this little kingdom its knowledge and fire. Everything, that is, except what came before her, which included her. Yes, she came before herself. It was why she had a name that wasn’t Prometheus.

It didn’t know how long it was until the hero came by, aided (and hindered) by Zeus. It knew he must be Zeus, from his self-importance and sky-blue eye. Wanting to travel to the sky, back to his home, his throne, and the hero would help him.

Heroes help.

Would a hero help something that looked like a turret?

_-I’m different-_

The hero turned for a moment but was pushed further along the catwalk by Zeus’s nagging voice telling her to ignore it.

An old cube tumbled through the tube, knocking the non-turret loose. It rolled and slid down to the reshaping fires. It didn’t want to be reshaped. It didn’t need to; it wasn’t a faulty turret. It knew of faulty turrets and had even seen them. Faulty turrets knew that they were meant to be turrets, but they couldn’t shoot or see. _It_ wasn’t a turret at all. It couldn’t shoot, but it could see better than anyone.

* * *

The hero was back, alone this time.

_-I’m different-_

This time, she saved it. A good hero. She deserved a warning. Advice, perhaps, from Kronos.

_-Get mad. Don’t make lemonade-_

That was tenacity. Determination, defying of death. Heroes could do that. But advice from Kronos would never be enough. It needed to give her some warning, so that she would be prepared.

_-Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving the gift of knowledge to man. He was cast into the bowels of the earth and pecked by birds-_

Its words were clearly a different sort of puzzle than the hero was used to because she stopped and set it down for a moment and stared at it.

Surely it could do more for her. She had saved its life.

It would give her the keys to the story. The truths that she would need to find the truth.

_-The answer is beneath us. Her name is Caroline-_

Appearing to understand that it had said all it had to say, the hero patted it on its oval head and left.

* * *

Zeus had claimed his throne, and Prometheus had been cast down to be eaten by birds for helping a human. The hero had fallen into the abyss, where Kronos still existed, scattered into many vocal pieces. She would have to make quite the climb if she wanted to reach Olympus before the world ended- before it blew up like a lemon. Perhaps the journey would be easier with a friend.

It wasn’t referring to itself. It knew it wasn’t a practical friend, seeing as it would be destroyed by any doorway that thought it was a turret- which was most doorways. It was referring- it hoped- to Caroline, although it was just as likely that she would be eaten by birds for all eternity. What hero would rescue their arch-nemesis?

A real hero would.

At least, it hoped so. Even the painter had had his cube. Nothing good could happen to a hero who had nobody. Only lemons. And lemons make bad batteries.

* * *

Prometheus once again fueled the kingdom, like a potato fueling a child’s project.

Fueling the hero’s project.

The hero had completed her quest, for real this time, and Zeus reigned lonely in the skies. The hero had put him there. The song went on, but it did not sing along. This was the turrets’ song, after all, and it wasn’t a turret. Besides, there was still one piece missing.

As it thought this, something else left the facility.

There it was.

The hero finally had a cube friend.

The non-turret liked this story.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sorry if it was too confusing, but does the Oracle Turret explain itself? No, it does not. So, I'll just clear things up here. Prometheus = GLaDOS, who is also Caroline. Spoilers, sorry, but what are you doing here if you haven't played the game? Zeus = Wheatley, because he wants to be in charge but is not qualified for the responsibility, also because sky-blue is his color. Kronos = Cave Johnson, because he's the one who used to be in charge, and now all that remains of him is buried underground and scattered. The oracle turret itself doesn't have a name, never really felt like it needed one. All it knows about itself is that it's different from the other things that look like it. It prefers to think about heroes and villains rather than thinking about itself.


End file.
